


Enough

by MissCeliaKnight



Category: Original Work
Genre: Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 03:09:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17113316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissCeliaKnight/pseuds/MissCeliaKnight
Summary: It is the question of”What are you”





	Enough

It is the question of  
”What are you”

It is telling me I’m either  
Too proper  
or  
Too getto  
Based on Speech Patterns and Behavior

It is the Rape of my Hair With Their Fingers  
It is the “Can I have your hair”  
While they look down their noses at Natural Black Hair

It is my friends’ yelling as I get into the car of a  
Random Stranger and his Friend  
Who called out to me  
When the “stranger” is  
My Father

It is the assumption that  
My Sister is “Appropriating Black Culture”  
by wearing a Wig  
or  
Getting Sew Ins and Extensions

It is my mother Explaining to me  
that White People are always the Leads in movies  
So others can Relate  
and then asking me If I Get It

It is the look I get when I sing  
Vivian Green  
or  
Nikka Costa  
in Public

It is me mourning the unfair loss of Colored People  
And my Grandmother Not Understanding  
My Pain

It is the Side Eye when I say  
“I can Relate”

It is the Joking Tone that  
If I was the one Driving  
We Would Have Gotten Arrested

It is my father  
Denying His Baby Girl  
Because She Is Too Light To Be His

It is teachers explaining historical  
Black Struggles  
Like I am not Experiencing Them  
Yet my opinion is invalidated because  
“I am Too White”

It is the Mispronunciation of My Name  
Or picking Nicknames  
“Because It’s Easier”

It is the “Why do White People Always Take Our Men and Women”  
As I date my Black Girlfriend  
And look Lighter compared to her

It is “Pick a Side”  
“Why do you look so White?”  
“Why do you look so Dark?”  
Yet Neither Side  
Wanting  
Me

It is Me Hating How Dark I am  
Yet Hating How Light I am

It is the Look From Adults  
When I’d be playing with my Family  
and yet seemed Out of Place  
Because of my skin color

It Is the Argument Among Friends about the Oscars  
and saying “Moonlight only won so they’d avoid looking Racist”  
Like I am Not Present  
Or like we Don’t Have Due’s Owed To Talent  
Because God Forbid We Have Talent that gets Recognition

It is my Sister getting so  
Dark in the summer  
People Don’t Think We’re Related

It is the People Reading This  
Accusing me of Things  
Because I Say “We”  
”Flippantly”  
For Black People and then White People

It is the question of  
“What are you”

I am  
Enough


End file.
